Sometimes we let the content we want to share on our websites dictate how we present things to our visitors. By this I mean that we don’t put ourselves in their shoes, someone that may be a novice to our products or our what we have to offer. Not every visitor will be as knowledgeable about what you are talking about as much as you are. And then there will be the fans, those with extreme affinity for what we have to say and provide. They’ll be looking for that extra bit of info, things they can take with them for free, something they can learn and pass on to others.

For this we need to provide signposts that help them easily find their way around, and yet will also be beneficial to helping us understand our visitors. Imagine we have a new website for an existing sotre sold product; maybe you can buy it from the website, but your real purpose for the site is as a marketing tool to teach people about the product or provide extra insight. So we have skwïddlers.com which stands as our gateway to all things skwïddle. From the main nav you might have a list of the various kinds of skwïddles we manufacture. There’s “Skwïdlo”, “Skwïddle Basik”, “Skwïddle 1976″, and “Dærk Skwïddle”. Anyone that’s never experienced the quality of your skwïddle may not even know the differences between these varieties and may likely click on every link. When you check your analytics and see a high number of visits on these pages you may think that the one with the most visits or most time spent visiting would be your most requested or soon to be requested product. But chances are you may wrong, possibly skwïdlo has the highest visits because it’s first, or they are all even, because people look at them all for some insight. You really have no idea if the visitor likes the product, even knows what it was before they came, or is a super fan of what you have to offer.

You’re only making inferences based on little data. However if we were to structure the site in such a way that we guided the visitor into areas they should be going based on their level of knowledge we can then further guide them into which product is right for them or to where they can enhance their appreciation for the product. First let’s just say that the nav is not the only way to direct your visitors, but that’s for an upcoming post. What we can do is provide areas for different levels of visitors. For skwïddlers.com we might have a section called “Skwïddle 101″ or “Intro to Skwïddlers” along with “Furthering Expereinces with Skwïddle” each of which can lead to varying skwïddle products based on level of affinity or experience.  All of these pages when visited by a decent number of visitors will help us understand our visitors and help our visitors get the most out of our products.

We will essentially be able to gauge what level of affinity and experience our visitors have with our products.  This can also be applied to many other types of content.  We can lead our visitors to areas based on preferences, location, age by simply supplying meaningful links and sections on our site.  Once we’ve started to collect his data about our visitors we will then be able to supply more content to the areas that people are more commonly visiting and not based on assumptions of what the analytics tell us.

Print any web page easily to PDF with a simple bookmarklet for free.  No software to install.

It is a pretty common assumption that the Japanese build better technology. But when it comes to electronics nowadays much of the same tech is available here and there. But they tend to make more use of it in Japan than in the states. They use their cell phones to pay for mass transit and it even works at some stores too to pay for merchandise. They use the 2D barcode system for everything there, and every phone can easily take advantage.  Th 2D barcode has been available in the US for a little while but is nowhere near as ubiquitous as in Japan (McDonalds has them on their sandwich wrappers; if you are ever in Japan you have to try the Ebi-Filet-O!)  When it comes to phones they have such a wide array of options and colors, in America if you want more than one color for a phone you have to buy the subpar Motorola RAZR, other you can get something a little fancier and get it in black, black or black.

I just spent two weeks in Tokyo and was completely amazed at how far advanced they are in so many areas that are rather simple if you think about them. The Tokyo JR transit is lightyears ahead of what we have in New York. Granted somethings like transit are a combination of advanced technology and a good amount of respect from the commuters for others on the railways. This allows for trains that are 99% on time. Their trains have helpful monitors that tell you exactly when you will arrive at the upcoming stations, which side of the train the doors will open, and helpful info about which lines are having delays or issues.  And to top it off they give all information on the monitors and the speaker system in Japanese and English.

No discussion on Japanese Technology should be without a proper bow to the heated toliet seat.  First of all all bathroom technology in general is fantastic in Japan.  They have digital temperature gauges for water heaters that allow for more precise heating.  Having a shower at a set temp every day that was heated quickly and efficiently was very nice.  The apartment we rented even allowed you to turn the water heater off when it was not needed so that you weren’t wasting any resources, and it heated quite fast when turned back on.  Sure these technologies are available in America, but they aren’t common, they even have heated seat toilets and toilets with bidets in common restrooms, the airport, and it’s quite common in many homes.

Will America ever have cutting edge technology that makes life easier and more efficient?  I certainly hope so.